


One's Treasure is Another's Food

by dieilux



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Animals, Gen, Pets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 03:36:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5401508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dieilux/pseuds/dieilux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minseok wants to go on an adventure. Luhan wants lots and lots of fluff. Yixing always gets what he wants.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One's Treasure is Another's Food

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the first round of Seokmonsters on LJ. The original post can be found [here](http://seokmonsters.livejournal.com/11727.html)
> 
> Thank you to Red for encouraging me in completing this fic T.T It means a lot to me. Also thank you to Camille for giving me ideas on how this fic should go.

Minseok’s ears twitch when he hears the loud sound of doors opening and closing, followed by heavy footfalls. _The Giant’s back!_ , he thinks excitedly and scurries to the gate of his cage, leaving his arranged piles of food at the corner. Food organisation is the least of his worries as he presses his face between the bars even though he knows he’ll never be able to fit through these cold, metal bars. It’s just that he’s very excited to see the giant, it’s been what, seven hours since he last saw him?

“Minseok!”

A large smile makes its way onto his face when he hears his name being mentioned by that squeaky, slightly nasal voice. Five, four, three, two… And there’s the Giant!

“Sehun, Sehun!” he calls out and reaches his hand out between the bars. Now that one can fit.

Sehun’s bubbly laughter fill the air and the tips of his large, pale fingers press gently against Minseok’s forehead that’s protruding out between the bars. “I missed you too, Minseok!” he exclaims as he sits down cross-legged in front of Minseok’s cage.

“Did you know Jongin and I went on a trip to the Moon today?” Sehun starts, his eyes growing wide and his hands gesturing to the large window, although the Moon clearly can’t be seen at the time— it’s daytime. Maybe the place Sehun goes to every day is night time when it’s daytime here.

Minseok retracts himself from the bars and plops down onto his soft bedding, ready to hear Sehun’s adventures of the day. This is the part that he loves the most about Sehun going away— not that he likes it when Sehun does, because he gets awfully lonely and boring those times, but the stories of his adventure that he brings back and tells to Minseok is absolutely worth it.

Sehun doesn’t wait for Minseok’s response— he can’t even understand Minseok’s language anyway.

(Minseok is another race altogether, born in captivity and so, so much smaller than Sehun’s race. He used to be scared of them, but Sehun changed that. Kind, gentle Sehun.)

“We went on this amaaaaaaazing rocket ship that we made, hear that Minseok? We made it ourselves! Jongdae helped too, but there was only room for two people on it so he had to stay back on Earth and talk through us through the intercom from Earth. How cool is that?”

_Very, very cool,_ Minseok thinks as he nods appreciatively. His hand absentmindedly wanders to the lone oval-shaped nutrient pill he had forgotten to sort into the pile this morning, or at least that’s what he calls it. Sehun calls them ‘ _seeds’_ , but seeds are supposed to grow, and he’s never felt any plants growing inside him…

“And whoa, when we got into space, we were going so fast and almost crashed into a rock! We were so scared, but thanks to Jongdae’s warning, we escaped death!” Sehun continues, his thin limbs gesturing wildly.

Minseok almost topples onto his back from shock. _Sehun is so brave_.

“But when we got to the Moon, it was so worth it. Everything was glowing, it’s like the Moon was a lightbulb. Not as bright as the Sun, though, but still!”

At this rate, Minseok’s mouth has fallen open because _wow, Sehun’s adventure was a success, again!_ His eyes land upon Sehun’s crescent shaped eyes and he knows that his Giant was super happy. He’s happy for Sehun, but somewhere inside him, he wants to feel what Sehun feels too.

He wants to have adventures too.

.... .- -- ... - . .-.

Minseok blinks his small, round eyes open and he notices that everything is dark. It’s time to execute his plan. After this, he can finally have adventures like Sehun, he thinks gleefully as he scurries to the gate. He can finally go to the Moon, to Sunflower Land, and to the Candy House (he has no idea how candies taste, but Sehun likes it a lot).

His hand reaches out between the bars of his cage and his fingers gingerly wrap around the latch, not wanting to make any loud sounds. If he gets caught trying to escape, the Giants would only put him back into this place and he’d have to wait for another day, which, in his opinion, is a very long time.

Gently, he lifts the latch and pulls it without making a sound. A satisfied smile makes its way onto his face as he slowly pushes the gate open. This is it, he’s finally going to have his adventure. He hopes he’ll be able to make it back in time. Sehun always does. But maybe it’s because Sehun is a Giant, his mind supplies. Minseok shakes his head to dispel the thought. He _will_ make it back before daylight, because the Moon is only there during nighttime. As long as he’s on the Moon, it’ll still be nighttime in this place.

Minseok takes a deep breath to calm his overexcited nerves. He turns around to inspect that his cage is as neat and clean as possible. Separated piles of nutrient pills according to colour, size and tastiness, check. Fluffed up bedding in the corner, check. Secret hole under the colourful slide, check and hidden.

He steps out of his cage, one foot at a time, and the difference is surreal. Of course nothing around him changed, but it’s what’s happening _inside_ him that’s so different. He feels lighter, more alert, and judging how he can feel his eyes scrunch up like how Sehun’s always do, he feels happier as well.

Maybe tomorrow he can go on another adventure again.

It’s only after he takes five steps in front of his cage that he realises that he has absolutely no direction or goal. How does one have an adventure if one does not have a goal? Where is he supposed to go? Actually, he doesn’t even know where he is, relative to everything. Maybe he should explore his surroundings, _then_ he can see where he has to go. Maybe somewhere nearer, like the Enchanted Woods instead of the Moon?

So he does that, Minseok treads on soft, fuzzy ground that’s brown in daylight, but black in night time, his steps making no sound at all. That’s why he’s nearly shocked out of his skin and furs when he hears a soft voice call out, “Hey!”

“Who’s that?” he whispers at no one in particular, spinning around to find the origin of the sound. It can’t be that an enemy is already trying to attack him when he’s so close to his cage? Sehun never gets to fight until he’s at _least_ halfway. Minseok feels his heartbeat hammer in his chest. He doesn’t have a weapon, nor does he have any experience being a knight like Sehun. His breaths get shorter as he scurries behind his cage, or at least he _thinks_ it’s his cage, because it looks exactly the same.

It’s not his cage, he realises belatedly when he sees black, sparkly eyes looking down at him from inside the cage. A horrified squeak comes out of his throat and he makes to run away to wherever, as long as it’s away from this creature, but he doesn’t get far, because the coat on his back is pulled back.

“Hey! hey, hey friend, calm down! I’m not going to hurt you!” the creature speaks in that soft voice, although the volume is slightly higher.

At that, Minseok calms down slightly, although he’s still wary. “What are you going to do, then?” he inquires, turning his head to meet the creature’s eyes. Now that he sees it, Minseok realises that the creature is the same size as he is, just with a smaller face and pointed nose.

“You’re my race!” the creature and Minseok exclaims at the same time, although with completely different intonations. While its tone was excited, Minseok’s was slightly horrified. His mind flashes back to his life BS— or Before-Sehun— where everyone was of his race, and it was almost suffocating, especially his siblings. He shudders visibly at the memory of his siblings piling up on top of him, the weak, small one. He especially hated Baekhyun, who always flopped on top of him with the same excuse— _“My eyesight isn’t here yet!”._ Minseok’s glad Sehun saved him from that place.

Minseok’s also very glad that this creature is inside a cage and doesn’t know how to escape.

Not for long, though.

“Hey, how did you get out? Where are you going? Can I come with you? Gosh, it’s been so long since I rubbed onto another person’s coat!” he asks in rapid succession. Minseok feels almost overwhelmed by the amount of excitement this person has, and if he was only mildly horrified before, hearing it say it wants to _rub onto him_ is enough to make him struggle out of its grasp.

He feels a slight pang in his chest when he sees the sad, pouty look on its face.

“I’m sorry I scared you, I just wanted to be friends…” it mutters, tears forming at the corners of its perfectly oval-shaped eyes. Minseok thinks they look like nutrient pills. Minseok also makes a conclusion that this creature must be the Baekhyun of its litter. Minseok is already calling him Baekhyun in his head.  
“What’s your name?” he asks, just to be sure.

“Luhan,” it answers. Oh, not Baekhyun, then. And also a boy. That’s good enough reason to continue talking to him.

“Luhan,” Minseok repeats, testing the name on his tongue. It feels slightly foreign, maybe he came from a different place. “I’m going on an adventure, but I don’t know where I should go to.”

“An adventure? Like Sehun?” Luhan asks, brightening up immediately.

“You know Sehun?”

“Of course I do! He always tell stories of his adventures. Oh gosh, I want to go with you, can I?” he asks in a hopeful voice.

At this, Minseok falters. A companion was not in his calculations. But Sehun always talk about how fun it was to go on adventures with Jongin and Jongdae… Maybe he can afford to bring his own Jongin, maybe it’ll be even more fun. He just hopes Luhan doesn’t start flopping on top of him or rubbing onto his coat.

“Sure, let’s get you out, Luhan.”

.... .- -- ... - . .-.

They've walked about a few hundred steps and Luhan hasn’t done anything to make Minseok regret his decision. Yet. _He’s not_ that _bad_ , even though he keeps on getting closer to Minseok with every step, Minseok thinks as he listens to Luhan’s stories of listening to Sehun’s adventures, which Minseok already knows by heart. But he's not that good either because Minseok is trying to figure out where they both are and where they're headed to.

Multitasking is hard for him, given his small brain. He's beginning to think of the pros and cons of keeping Luhan with him when another voice, softer than Luhan’s, is heard and both he and Luhan stop in their tracks.

"Psst."

Minseok looks at Luhan.

Luhan looks at Minseok and shakes his head.

"Psst, over here!"

Both of them immediately whip their heads in the direction of the voice, as if it saying 'here' helps them realise where it comes from. Minseok is already dreading this, because the last time he heard a voice in the dark, it was his race. Just how many of his race do the Giants keep??

"Hey!"

Oh, it's not his race. It's a...

"Fluffy big bed!!!!!!" Luhan screams in a high-pitched voice as he launches towards a cage housing the fluffy creature, bigger than both of their cages combined.

Somehow, Minseok doesn't think it's a fluffy big bed.

Luhan rushes to the cage door and tries to unlatch it, to no avail. He looks at Minseok, who hasn't moved from his original spot.

"Minseok, help me," he whines and shakes the door, rattling the metal latch. "We need to save the Fluff."

"No, Luhan," Minseok says, trying to convince Luhan as he takes hesitant steps towards the cage. "I don't think it's called a... Fluff."

Even so, it _is_ fluffy, but that's not the only thing about it. It's huge, not as big as Sehun, but three times as big as Minseok himself, and in the dim lighting, he can see that it's somewhat grey in colour.

"He's right!" the Fluff-but-not-Fluff says, startling Minseok into letting out a short squeak. Luhan, on the other hand, looks somewhat disappointed and tries to shake the cage door harder in hopes of unhinging it. "I'm Yixing."

Minseok can't properly see its-- no, his face, but he can definitely hear the smile in his voice. He seems friendly enough.

"Minseoooooook," Luhan whines louder. Minseok has almost forgotten about Luhan and his noisy quest to save the Fluff. What is he wakes up the Giants?

"Luhan," he hisses as he pushes him aside and to unlatch the door himself with practiced ease, "you'll wake the Giants up!"

Luhan's mouth forms an 'O' as he nods in understanding and scurries to move closer to Minseok, which is completely unnecessary in his opinion. He does _not_ need motivation in the form of Luhan breathing down his neck to open the door, which he does just fine, even though it takes a bit longer to do so.

As soon as the door is swung open, Luhan jumps into the cage and presses himself against Yixing. Now that Minseok is closer, he can see Yixing looking at Luhan with a fond expression.

"Fluff," Luhan mumbles into Yixing's coat that looks softer than Minseok's bed. Not that Minseok wants to touch it, no matter how soft it is. Unlike Luhan, he knows the meaning of personal space. Even if Yixing’s coat looks _very, very soft._

"Luhan, let's go," Minseok says, tugging on Luhan's coat. He must not be sidetracked from his original mission. He’s out here for an adventure, not to bury his face into some despicably soft coat.

"Five more minutes," Luhan responds, burying his face into Yixing's coat as his hands clutch onto it tighter. Darn it, it looks so soft, maybe he can… touch it just a bit.

"No, Luhan, let's _go_ ," Minseok repeats after shaking his head, tugging harder this time, and Luhan responds with merely burying his face deeper into Yixing's coat.

"Where are you going?" Yixing finally speaks up after his long silence.

That... is actually a good question.

"We... don't know," Minseok falters. "But we're going on an adventure!"

"Oh, an adventure! That sounds interesting, but also dangerous. Are you guys... looking for _the treasure_?" Yixing asks, whispering the last two words as if someone might be listening in.

"What treasure?" Luhan pipes up, finally extracting his face.

"Shhh!" Yixing hushes Luhan, who pouts and buries his face in his coat again. Yixing nuzzles his head onto Luhan's, whispering an apology.

"The Giants got a treasure today, I saw them bringing it in. It's big, long and orange!" Yixing whispers excitedly.

"Big, long and orange...," Minseok wonders aloud. What treasure could possibly fit those descriptions? Unless...

"Did you mean gold?"

"No!" Yixing yells, startling Luhan out of his coat where he was previously half-buried in it, before realising his mistake. "I mean, no, it's orange," he says in a hushed voice. "Don't just simply say it's gold, you're not respecting it!"

After his initial outburst, Minseok hesitates to correct Yixing again. Even so, he still believes that it's gold, because treasures are always golden, unless it's a jewel. Oh, he's intrigued now.

"Do you know where it is?" Luhan asks, sitting up on the cage floor after being cruelly startled out of his most favourite spot in the world, which Minseok didn’t get to touch.

"Yes, it's in the Metal Swamp, I saw the Giants placing it right next to the Waterfall," Yixing exclaims in a confident voice, his chest puffing out slightly.

The Metal Swamp. Minseok has never heard of that place before, and he has no idea what it looks like. It sounds scary, unlike Candy House or the Enchanted Woods. There must be a lot of enemies inside... Minseok shakes his head to dispel his cowardly thoughts. He can't be picky if he wants to go on an adventure!

"Show us the way to the Metal Swamp," he says in a determined voice, ignoring Luhan who's crawled slowly back to him and burying his face in _Minseok's_ coat now.

"But it's dangerous, and you're so small!"

Minseok facepalms. _This Fluff_ , Minseok sighs internally.

"Oh alright, since you're so determined," Yixing says and it reminds Minseok of Sehun's 'Mom'. "You'll have to walk straight down the road you came from, then climb up a sharp cliff. You can't climb it directly, so you'll have to hop on the ledges before the cliff."

"That's it?" Luhan asks. "I thought it was supposed to be dangerous."

"You're not letting me finish," Yixing chides him and Luhan pouts again, clutching onto Minseok's coat. "You'll have to sneak around the monster when you're on the ledges. He has a very sharp nose."

Both Minseok and Luhan gasp. It’s safe to say that they both reached an unspoken agreement where none of them wants to be poked to death by a sharp nose. Maybe the Metal Swamp is called like the _Metal Swamp_ because it has fish made of pointy, metal noses.

Gulping, Minseok stammers out a 'thank you' and drags Luhan along with him out of the cage. Once outside, he holds Luhan by the shoulders and looks at him in the eye, noticing that the sparkles in Luhan’s eyes have dimmed slightly.

"Are you sure you want to come with me?" he asks, his tone serious even though there's a slight tremor in his voice. "Like Yixing said, it's going to be dangerous."

Luhan sniffs and nods. "I-I’m very sure. Even though I'm not that helpful, I can't let a friend go alone."

Minseok is touched at how soft Luhan's voice sounds when he mentions the word 'friend'. Maybe Luhan can be more than a companion on his adventure.

"Okay, let's go!"

Both Minseok and Luhan are startled again and they look up to see Yixing beaming down at them.

"What," Minseok deadpans.

"I thought you weren't coming," Luhan says, squinting his eyes at Yixing to appear judgemental, although Minseok can see the excitement in them.

"I never said I wasn't coming, guys. You tiny creatures are so funny," Yixing says with the smile still plastered on his face and hops forward, leaving Minseok and Luhan to scamper after him and his floppy, grey ears.

Maybe Minseok will get more than two companions on his adventure.

.... .- -- ... - . .-.

They reach the ledges pretty quickly, considering their small size. Maybe the Giants' house isn't as big as they initially thought.

Climbing up the ledges though... is not done that quickly. For Yixing at least. Even though none of them has opposable thumbs, Luhan and Minseok can grip the ledges and pull themselves up, albeit slowly. Yixing, on the other hand, can't even hold onto anything.

"Ouch!" Luhan squeaks loudly. "Yixing, stop biting me!"

"I'm sorry!" Yixing exclaims in an exasperated tone. "I can't pull myself up otherwise!"

With that realisation, Luhan and Minseok pause in their tracks. Their vision shifts from Yixing to the ledges, which are arranged vertically like Minseok's ladder in his cage. Except this ladder is a really, really tall one...

Minseok hoists himself up onto the ledge that he was holding onto and squats. From his position, he can see he's already progressed quite far and Yixing was still on the ground, pouting. Even his floppy ears seem to droop even more.

Luhan catches up to Minseok and sits beside him, clutching onto Minseok's coat, perhaps seeking for comfort.

"What's going to happen to Yixing? We can't let the metal fish get to him, Minseok," he whispers, not wanting Yixing to hear.

Minseok gnaws on his bottom lip, trying to think of a solution. They can go back now before the fish comes, but they're already so close to the Metal Swamp. It would be a waste to go back when they're so close to the treasure.

Wait, that's it! Yixing can wait on the ground to catch the treasure when they find it. They can't bring the treasure down any other way. He just has to hide somewhere until they call for him.

"Yixing!" Minseok calls, startling Luhan who almost topples over the ledge.

"Yes?" Yixing looks up with hopeful eyes.

"Can you find somewhere to hide?"

Yixing deflates visibly at that question, but he looks around nevertheless. "I... think so. There's a fluffy big bed over there," he says, motioning to his left with his nose.

"Fluffy bi--"

Thankfully, Minseok manages to clamp his hand over Luhan's mouth before he can squeal any louder and jump from the ledge. It's pretty high up and he doesn't think Luhan would survive the fall.

"Okay, great. We'll drop the treasure when we find it, and then you'll drag it to safety, okay Yixing?" Minseok asks, already standing up and letting go of Luhan's coat which he didn't notice he was holding onto previously.

"Ohhhhh, I get your plan now. Wow, I never knew even you can come up with genius plans!" Yixing says nonchalantly, hopping to the fluffy big bed.

Minseok squints. Should he feel offended? But Yixing doesn't seem to think of it as an insult... Maybe he shouldn't be offended.

When Yixing is out of sight, they both continue their trek to the top of the cliff, avoiding certain death a few times. Once they've reached the top, the ground seems so far below. Minseok has no idea how they're going to go back down, but... maybe he can leave the planning to Yixing, the _master_ of plans.

"Woah," Luhan exclaims in awe.

Minseok tears his eyes away from the ground and looks at what Luhan was _woah_ ing about, and

" _Woah_."

The Metal Swamp is right in front of them, and it's huge. There are tall plants in rounded containers placed haphazardly along the pathway-- not that there's much of a pathway, there are so many big white circles stacked on top of the other. But Minseok and Luhan are small, they'll manage to find a way, even though they have to squeeze their way in.

"Luhan, you'll go f-

"Guys!!!!!"

"-irst..?"

"Isn't that Yixing?"  
  
_Yip!_

"That's not Yixing, Luhan."

"Bad fluffy bed! Bad fluffy bed! Ouch! Stop biting my ear!"

_Uh oh._

Minseok and Luhan rushes to the edge to see what's happening and gasps when they see _it._ The monster isn't a fish with a metal nose, it's... the huge fluffy bed that Yixing mentioned. And it has a very big mouth, which is currently biting on one of Yixing's ear.

But not for long. With one thwack from Yixing's hand, it relinquishes its deadly bite and whimpers.

"Minseok," Luhan whispers, "it doesn't sound like a monster. Can I pet it?"

"No, Luhan!" Minseok chastises and holds onto Luhan's coat. Just in case. "Yixing, hold on, we're coming for you!" Minseok yells. How will he even get down, he has no idea, but he needs to reassure Yixing somehow.

"No, no it's okay guys, I got this under control," Yixing says, circling the monster with small hops. The monster seems entranced by him, and doesn't seem to want to attack him. "I've seen the Giants handle this, they command him to _fetch_."

At the word 'fetch', the monster lets out an excited _yip!_ and jumps, startling Yixing and toppling him over in the process.

"Don't you need to throw something to make him-- nevermind," Luhan mutters to himself. It turns out the monster thinks it needs to fetch Yixing, which is what it's doing, holding Yixing up by the back of his neck gently.

"At least it's better than his ears, don't you think?" Minseok whispers to Luhan while his eyes are still fixated at the exasperated Yixing, who is trying to struggle out of the monster's mouth.  
  
Now that they've seen the monster, it doesn't look that menacing. It's not even trying to eat Yixing, it's even placing him gently on the floor and licking his coat.

“That's a very cute monster,” Luhan says.

_Yip!,_ it exclaims as if it agrees and licks Yixing's ruffled coat.

"Yixing, I think it wants to play with you!" Minseok yells.

"What? This isn't playing? This-- this is a bath!" Yixing retaliates, trying to escape yet again, to no avail.

"Do you think he'll be safe with it?" Luhan whispers.

"Yeah, he'll be fine," Minseok answers, looking at Yixing, who seems like he has given up and has accepted his fate as the monster's new toy. "Look, he's even enjoying it!" he snickers.

"No, not there! Ugh, you smell like-- like a pup! Like a baby! Noooooo, lick my back if you must, I can't reach it most days. Ah yes, over there. Good big fluff."

"Yup, definitely."

.... .- -- ... - . .-.

"I hate Yixing."

"You're not alone."

Luhan and Minseok both crowd the _big, long and orange treasure,_ which is not even a treasure after all.

"It's what Mom calls _carrot_ ," Minseok says, dragging his palm down his face. Even though he calls the seeds that he eat as nutrient pills, he definitely knows that this object, which is not even close to resembling a jewel, is a carrot. He's seen Mom bringing this from her adventures.

Of course Yixing would trick them into finding the treasure for him, this is _food._ Both Luhan and him have eaten this before, even though the ones they had were smaller.

"What say you, we take this loot for ourselves?" Luhan suggests, already stepping closer to the carrot.

"I say you got yourself a deal," Minseok says, going to one end of the carrot. "Let's roll this back to our cages. Serves him right to trick us like this."

Luhan scurries to the other end and lifts it up with his tiny hand, Minseok following suit. They walk back in the direction they came from, maneuvering through the plants in the dark. They can hear the faint sounds of Yixing talking to the monster about how soft and warm he is.

"We need to be quiet when we bring it down," Minseok whispers as he overlooks the edge of the cliff and sees Yixing snuggled up on the monster's head with his eyes closed.

Luhan nods, and they tip toe to the edge as silently as they can.

They can't get down. Not without alerting Yixing. Scratch that. They can't even get down _at all_.

"Maybe we should eat this now, and worry about Yixing later," Luhan says, dragging the carrot away from the ledge.

_That's a pretty smart idea_ , Minseok thinks and he helps Luhan in dragging the carrot before taking a huge bite out of it, relishing in the juiciness and crunchiness of it. Luhan does the same, and he lets out a delighted moan from how tasty it is. Yixing was right, this _is_ treasure.

"Guys?"

Minseok and Luhan look at each other with wide, alarmed eyes and full cheeks.

"Guys, I know you guys are up there! Is that--" A sniff. "You guys are eating the treasure without me!"

Minseok gulps and he doesn't even have to strain his ear to hear the whimper and booming steps of the monster. Yixing has gained an ally! He'll get up here with no problems.

"Up, fluffy bed!"

And up it did go, but as large as it is, it's still not that large to get on the hill. Only the head reaches up to the cliff, and on its head, biting on one of its golden ear for dear life is none other than Yixing. He quickly hops over to Luhan and Minseok.

"How could you guys betray me?" Yixing asks in a horrified tone, jumping on the carrot and sitting on it. As if that would stop Minseok and Luhan.

"You told us it's a treasure!" Minseok yells and takes another huge bite, eliciting a loud shriek from Yixing who flops on the carrot.

Luhan also takes another bite, and another, and another. Both of them aren't even eating at this point, they're just stuffing their cheeks as much as they can, much to Yixing's horror.

The monster seems to sense Yixing's distress, because it starts whimpering and yipping loudly from the ground. _Very loudly._

It won't take long before the Giants are alerted, and all three of them know that. Yixing has given up on protecting the carrot and has resorted to also stuffing his cheeks, even though it's slightly harder for him to do so.

The carrot isn't even half devoured before the darkness around them is immediately replaced with brightness, causing all three to pause in their desperate attempts.

"Chanyeol, what's wrong?"

_It's Sehun!,_ Minseok thinks and he immediately tries to hide behind the carrot.

He's too late. "Minseok? Luhan? Yixing? What are you guys doing out of your cages...?"

.... .- -- ... - . .-.

"This is great, guys, where are we going next time?" Yixing asks from his cage as he munches on the leftover carrot after Sehun has left.

"Somewhere without you," Minseok mutters bitterly, throwing a nutrient pill outside his cage hoping it would somehow hit Yixing. It doesn't. It's awfully hard to aim when there's Luhan clutching onto the back of his coat.

He doesn't want more nutrient pills, he wanted the carrot!

"Hamsters eat seeds, only rabbits eat carrots, that's what Sehun said, Minseok," Luhan says as if he senses Minseok's dissatisfaction.

"That's not what Mom says!" Minseok screams and turns around to bury his face in Luhan's coat. It's much softer than Yixing's anyway, he notes with a huff. Why is Luhan in his cage anyway? He shrugs. Maybe Sehun forgot.

_Yip!_

"Good boy, Chanyeol! Do you want some carrots too?"

"YIXING, NO!"  



End file.
